


Russian for Dummies

by cutthroatpixie



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Viktor with a K, viktor is a russian ta and yakov has regrets about choosing him, yuuri is just tryna learn that beautiful beautiful language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 12:43:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9124120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutthroatpixie/pseuds/cutthroatpixie
Summary: "Are you a beginner?"Viktor was not a beginner. Viktor was the TA supposedly in charge of this study session. Viktor spoke Russian. Viktor was Russian."Sure!"





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [counterheist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/counterheist/gifts).
  * Translation into 中文 available: [初學者的俄語課](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9288239) by [betty5271](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betty5271/pseuds/betty5271)
  * Translation into Tiếng Việt available: [Russian For Dummies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9696194) by [visiondoesntneedsupervision](https://archiveofourown.org/users/visiondoesntneedsupervision/pseuds/visiondoesntneedsupervision)
  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Russo para Leigos](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11513388) by [lee_cameron26](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lee_cameron26/pseuds/lee_cameron26)
  * Translation into Русский available: [Русский для чайников](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14057055) by [mommy_Vulture](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mommy_Vulture/pseuds/mommy_Vulture)



> my friend and I were talking about another fic we read and were like "viktor nikiforov of russia who speaks russian as his native goddamned language would probably let yuuri help him with russian homework to flirt bc he is him" and this was born

Viktor Nikiforov was Russian. He was born in Saint Petersburg, to Russian parents, and while he had learned English and French in school, his native language was Russian. He was so very, very fluent in his own native tongue, in fact, that when he'd gone to Detroit for grad school, he'd gotten a teaching assistant position with one of the Russian teachers and, after a few terms to prove he wasn't a total slacker, he was now in charge of his own Russian 101 class. He was also a very social, very helpful person, in addition to his Russian speaking and teaching, so he ran an unofficial homework help/conversation session twice a week that anyone studying Russian was invited to.

That was how he'd gotten himself into his current situation, of course.

"Zdrastvuite," a man greeted him in quiet, hesitant, oh so formal Russian. Viktor looked up to return the greeting and oh wow.

Wow.

Viktor did not previously believe in love at first sight (unless it came to poodles, he loved each and every one of them at first and second and every sight), but even though the man before him was standing in a doorway right under the most unflattering light, wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt in a shade that so did not fit him, looking like he'd just run all the way from the other side of campus, he may as well have been a literal, actual angel sent from a literal, actual, existent heaven to bless Viktor with his beautiful brown eyes and lovely, oh so muscular thighs. 

"Um. Is this the Russian study group? Did I get the time wrong?" He was early, by 20 minutes or so. Viktor didn't tell him that. 

"Bonjour," Viktor said instead. "Hello. Privet. Yes. Russian."

"I... okay. Hi." The man sat down across the table from Viktor and gave him a shy smile. He said something in the adorable, not-quite-correct Russian of a person who had been studying for a year at least, but wasn't quite confident in their abilities.

Viktor just stared at him. The way the horrible fluorescent light reflected off his lips was the stuff of lore.

"Are you a beginner?" the man tried again, in English this time. 

Viktor was not a beginner. Viktor was the TA supposedly in charge of this study session. Viktor spoke Russian. Viktor  _ was _ Russian.

"Sure!" he found himself saying. His brain (for once) caught up with him shortly after he said that and oops. 

He could have fixed his mistake at that point. Said he didn’t hear the question, haha sorry, and that he was the TA in charge of the group. "Hold on one second, I have to send an email." Instead, he pulled out his phone, trying to ignore the lovely, confused expression on the other man’s face as he opened up his university email and sent a quick message to all the students from his beginners class.

_ Hello class! _

_ In an effort to better connect to all the students of the Russian department, not just the cute ones, let's all pretend I'm not your teacher in the conversation sessions. I'm just a person. Talking to other people. In terrible Russian. It'll be a lot of fun! Don't tell any cute Japanese (I think?) boys that I speak Russian thanks I'll see you soon. _

_ -Viktor _

"Finished!" He slammed his phone down a bit too hard on the table and the man whose name and number and hand in marriage he still needed to get jumped. "I'm Viktor, by the way."

"I'm Yuuri." Yuuri was looking at his phone and not at Viktor and that was such a pity for the whole minute this was going on. Eventually Yuuri looked back up at him, his brows knit in confusion and a hint of colour starting to spread across his cheeks. "Want to work on homework until the others get here, Viktor?"

Viktor had copies of the 101 homework assignments in his bag, in case anyone who showed up had lost theirs or forgotten them or wasn't actually taking the class and just needed a copy for flirting purposes. "Of course!"

When the other students showed up, he got a lot of smirks and eye rolls shot his way, but luckily nobody said anything to Yuuri, not even when he asked where the TA was and did anyone know who he was?

"Seems awfully irresponsible of him," Yuuri said to Viktor. Viktor almost forgot that it was himself Yuuri was referring to. He was correct, though. 

"Maybe he had something more important to do?"

"Or someone," one of the beginner students added. 

Viktor blushed a bit and then went back to pretending he couldn't read cyrillic so Yuuri could explain the alphabet to him one more time. He loved the way Yuuri explained the alphabet.

\---

The thing about being an absolute idiot and saying he didn't know Russian, Viktor quickly realised, was that there was no easy way to slip into conversation that he actually did know it and wasn’t that so funny, Yuuri???

**Yakov** **  
****16:02** **  
**_  
_ _ Vitya, what on earth are you doing? My class has informed me that you’re still playing dumb in the study sessions. Don't make me regret giving you extra responsibilities. _

Viktor ignored the text from Yakov. He was, once again, at the study session with Yuuri and the other students, who were all saying such mean, mean things about the "asshole TA who never shows up for the study sessions he organised".

"He can't be an asshole," Viktor insisted. "He brought us all together, yeah?"

"To struggle through our homework as usual, yes." Yuuri glanced over at Viktor's "homework". "Or not. You learned the alphabet really fast."

Viktor looked down at his piece of paper. He'd taken out the answer key on accident. "Ah, I guess! It was all due to your help, really."

Yuuri grinned at him and oh no. He was so beautiful and Viktor was so fucked. "I'm sure it was."

\---

Viktor was in class one day, teaching. Teaching the Russian language. The language he still hadn't managed to set Yuuri straight about his actual skill level on, despite having met him two weeks ago. 

"So do you speak Russian again,  _ professor _ ?" Viktor had no idea why Chris was even taking this class, other than to tease him. It at least made it fun and helped a little bit with his first time teaching to have someone he already knew in the class. It also helped ensure absolutely nobody in the class took him too seriously. 

"It's a miracle, I do!" The whole class laughed and Viktor turned back to the board to finish writing out the sentence he'd been working on. 

Someone knocked on the door. "Excuse me?"

Viktor stopped writing immediately upon hearing Yuuri's voice. "Yuuri!" he squeaked. "You're not in this class!" He looked at the board. "I'm just practicing the professor told me to write this I'm sitting down now." He sat down in an empty chair next to Chris, who currently looked like he was filing this all away for later blackmail (or maybe the best man speech at his wedding when he and Yuuri eventually got married, since that was a thing that was so going to happen).

Yuuri stammered a bit before actually speaking and wow it was adorable when he couldn't form words, did Yuuri think he was adorable when he couldn't properly make his mouth work as well? "Professor Feltsman asked me to bring some assignments down to his TA."

"He's apparently not here," a student told Yuuri, oh so helpfully. "But if you give them to Viktor I'm sure he'll get them sorted for you."

"Oh yes, you can trust me with them."  

"I'm sure I can." Viktor didn’t know why Yuuri was giving him such an amused look but Yuuri was looking at him, so he didn’t really mind at all.

Yuuri handed Viktor the stack of student work and Viktor made extra sure their hands brushed and that his fingers lingered a little longer than necessary before he actually took the papers. The skin on Yuuri's hands was dry and clearly in need of some moisturizer, though it was no less divine. Viktor would just have to bring his lotion next time they had a study session. 

Yuuri blushed. "I have my own lotion, but thanks?"

Oops. He'd said that out loud. "I insist. It's very nice lotion."

The blush didn't go away, much to Viktor's delight. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yes. Do vstrechi!"

\---

Viktor did see Yuuri the next day, though it wasn’t at the study group.

They ran into one another at a cafe close to campus. Viktor noticed Yuuri right away, sitting at a table with a dark haired boy that Viktor didn't actually know but recognized from one of the few photos Yuuri had on his Instagram (that he'd followed because Yuuri gave him the username and not because he was stalking him via social media).

"Speak of the devil," Yuuri's friend said. "Your handsome Russian friend just walked in." 

"My wha— hi Viktor."

"Hi Yuuri!" Yuuri thought he was handsome. Viktor was going to die with a smile on his face for sure. "Mind if I join you?"

"He doesn't mind at all," the other boy said, throwing Yuuri a grin that almost looked conspiratory in nature. "In fact I think he'd mind if you didn't."

"Well I don't want to disappoint." Viktor and Yuuri’s friend, Phichit, introduced themselves to one another and then Viktor was off to get a coffee of his own.

"Do you think he heard you before," Viktor heard Yuuri whisper. He was not very good at it, the whispering. Viktor liked that about him.

"I hope so. When are you going to ask him out?"

"Oh my god Phichit, shut up."

Viktor was already dead. He had died and gone to heaven and his afterlife was a wondrous one filled with Yuuri wanting to date him. He returned to the table Yuuri and Phichit were at and chose the seat right next to Yuuri.

"So you're Viktor Nikiforov," Phichit said. "That a Russian name?"

It was. Viktor was Russian. "I guess?"

Viktor thought he saw Yuuri roll his eyes and then he gave Phichit  _ A Look _ and Viktor had no idea what it meant but he kind of wanted Yuuri to be looking at him instead, though with much more pleasant, less eyerolly faces.

"Hey Yuuri," Viktor started. "I've been thinking and—"

" _ THERE _ YOU ARE."

Viktor and Yuuri both jumped when a loud shout came from right behind them. Phichit looked amused, yet unphased by the yelling. 

"Yuri! What are you doing here?"

Yuri Plisetsky was a freshman who Viktor had known back in Russia (where they were both from, because Viktor was Russian) before they both coincidentally decided to study at the same school. He was currently scowling at Viktor and holding out a phone to him. He gave a quick glance toward Yuuri before he spoke. "Can you stop pretending to not speak Russian for two seconds and talk to my grandpa? Tell him I'm eating just fine here, he doesn't believe me."

Viktor looked at Yuri, then at Yuuri, then at the phone, whose name was not Yuuri/Yuri because it was a phone that didn’t have a name. "I. Um. Of course you're eating well, I let you use the oven at my apartment all the time to cook good food?"

"Tell him that." Viktor continued to stare at the phone. "In Russian, preferably, you know his English isn't the best."

Viktor did not take the phone. Yuuri took the phone from Yuri (he was going to have to think up a nickname for one of them, this was getting too confusing) and handed it to Viktor. "Go on, then," he said. 

Viktor did "go on". He had a brief, cheerful conversation with Yuri's grandpa to assure him that yes, his grandson was eating well, of course he was looking out for him, yes please they would both love a care package with some homemade pirozhki, yes yes he'd made one whole friend wasn't that great? When he was done, Yuri snatched the phone back from him and quickly exited the cafe, but not before telling Viktor to, "Stop being a dumbass and just tell him you like him already!”

Viktor was so, so embarrassed. Yuuri was going to think he was a dishonest, lying, terrible person who had no right being a teaching assistant or dating him and everything was going to be terrible. He should leave right then and go die of not-happiness instead.

"Guess you two can stop playing that silly game now." Phichit’s voice pulled Viktor from his thoughts. "I have to go now but Yuuri! Text me later and tell me you two are finally dating, please. Bye Viktor!"

Phichit was also gone and then it was just Yuuri and stupid, stupid Viktor sitting alone together.

"I saw the email." Yuuri wasn't looking at him, but rather at his own nervously twisting hands. "That first day. You sent it to the whole department list, not just your class."

Viktor's eyes widened in shock. "I'm so sorry."

"I thought it was funny at first? And that you were going to correct yourself eventually but you never did?" Yuuri's cheeks were a light pink in colour and Viktor was pretty sure his were as well. 

"I was trying very hard to think of a way to say that I didn't actually mean to say yes when you asked if I was a beginner but. Well." Viktor had no idea why he'd let it go on this long. He had no idea why Yuuri had either. 

"Maybe," Yuuri started and then stopped. He stumbled over a few nonsensical syllables before finally settling on. "If you want to actually help  _ me _ in the study sessions, instead of the other way around, I can teach you some Japanese sometime?  Unless you secretly know that already, of course."

"Like a date?" Being taught Japanese wasn't a typical date night activity but Viktor was really up for anything if Yuuri was there. 

"Like a. No. Yes. Maybe? No." Viktor frowned and Yuuri must have seen because his next words brightened Viktor's expression immediately. "We can go on an actual date that isn't studying."

When Viktor and Yuuri showed up to the study session later, together (together together  _ together _ ), Yuuri beat Viktor to the punch and informed everyone they could stop pretending Viktor wasn't the asshole TA who never actually showed up to help them study. 

"Finally!" they all exclaimed in unison. 

They still didn't get very much actual studying done. Viktor was too busy trying to get Yuuri to repeat pick up lines in Russian while everyone else laughed/complained about him still being an asshole TA who never helped them study.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> thanks to everyone who has read and continues to read this! since people have asked, if you ever want to do a translation/podfic/art/other related works, you are more than welcome to. just link me so that I can see it :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Russian for Dummies [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13734051) by [neck_romancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neck_romancer/pseuds/neck_romancer)




End file.
